wednesday, defense secretary leon panetta formally notified congress of the pentagon's plan to furlough civilian employees should congress not act to stop those automatic spending cuts from going into effect on march 1, just eight days from now. >>> and government agencies all over the country holding their breath to see if congress will make a deal. the national institutes of health would lose $1.at billion in funding -- $1.5 billion in funding if a deal is not made. that means millions of americans whose lives depend on advanced treatments and research, they'll have to go without. nih, cancer, hiv, and alzheimer's research would come to a halt. >>> border protection and transit agents could be out of jobs because of cuts. the wait times for flights could double. you could find yourself in line for three hours to get through security and six hours to get through customs. >>> house speaker john boehner submitted an op-ed in the "wall street journal" about the cuts. speaker boehner wrote, "the president has repeatedly called for even more tax revenue, but the american people don't suppor